1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector, and particularly to a push button for a card ejector mechanism of a card connector which receives a push force to activate the card ejector mechanism and eject a card inserted into the connector.
2. The Prior Art
Portable computers (or laptop computers) are generally equipped with card connectors for receiving IC cards therein. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,324,204, 5,383,789 and 5,421,737 and Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 82102557, 82109139 and 83107162 disclose a variety of card connectors each consisting of a connector and a card ejector mechanism for ejecting a card inserted into the connector by pushing a push button of the mechanism. The card ejector mechanisms of these conventional connectors have either of the following disadvantages: a push button thereof is always received in the computer thereby inhibiting access thereto which complicates ejection of an inserted card, or the push button protrudes from a housing of the computer a significant distance and therefore may become damaged by an external force which would render the entire card ejector mechanism inoperable.
Referring to FIG. 1, a card connector 2 generally consists of a connector 6 having a housing 60 interferentially mounting a number of contacts 601 and having two engaging arms 602 for engaging with a card guiding frame 5. A daughter board 62 is soldered to the contacts 601 for electrically connecting an inserted card (not shown) to a mother board (not shown). The guiding frame 5 generally consists of two longitudinal arms 50 connecting with a mounting plate 53. An ejector mechanism consists of a push rod 54 slidably mounted to one of the arms 50, a push button 501 fixed to one end of the rod 54 and an actuator 52 having a first end connected to the other end of the rod 54 and a second end connected to an ejecting plate 51 slidably mounted on the mounting plate 53. A shielding/grounding plate 64 is mounted to the housing 60 above the contacts 601. When no card is inserted into the connector 2, the push rod 54 together with the push button 501 is located at a front position as shown in FIG. 2(A). When a card 8 is inserted into the connector 2, the push rod 54 together with the push button 501 is displaced to a rear position as shown in FIG. 2(B) whereby a push force can be exerted on the push rod 54 via the push button 501 to pivot the actuator 52 which moves the ejecting plate 51 rearward to eject the inserted card 8.
The prior art as shown in FIGS. 1 to 2(B) discloses the push button 501 to be constantly located inside a housing 7 of a computer, which inhibits user access to the push button 501 to exert the ejecting force.
In another design, the push button protrudes a sufficient distance from the housing of the computer to receive the push force when a card is inserted into the connector. Although such a design can overcome the problem of the prior art of FIGS. 1 to 2(B), the protruding push button may become easily damaged by an external force.
Hence, an improved push button structure is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of conventional card connectors for portable computers.